(UPDATE)Hurricane Rita Report: Lake Charles (with pictures and poll).

Last weekend my wife and I brought her mother and Grandparents back home to Lake Charles, LA to reassess the damage to their houses. It was the first time they've been back since the storm hit and we found the grim but evolving picture of a city hard hit and struggling to recover. Details, pictures, and some scary gossip about what happened in New Orleans in the days after Katrina below that proverbial fold.

Remember when category 5 Rita was fast approaching on the heels of Katrina and everyone thought it was headed for Houston? As the country waited to see if Houston would be the next New Orleans, people in H-Town began their 20 and 30 hour traffic stall out on I-45 and HWY59 and in a mad rush for water and beer stripped the stores of provisions. Ultimately, the storm weakened to 3 and turned away from the Bayou City, but in Lake Charles, as in every inhabited locale east of Baytown, people knew that meant they would suffer the full impact. LC and Cameron (which was almost completely destroyed) received the dirty edge of the storm; the northeastern quadrant that spawned too may tornadoes to count and devastating 120 mph winds.

Remembering the lessons of previous hurricanes, especially Audrey that wiped out Cameron in '57, the family did what they could to protect property and headed north to ride it out with relatives. As it happened, Rita hit almost exactly where Audrey did, east of Sabine Pass on the LA-TX border, placing LC in extreme harm's way. We all know the rest of the story, at least what we saw on TV and by word of mouth. But disaster fatigue from Katrina and escalating political intrigue, coupled with most of the country plain not knowing much about western Louisiana, put LC off the radar pretty fast.

We could see the damage long before arriving in LC. Starting about 30 miles west of Beaumont along the I-10 corridor, the normally dense forest was clearly stripped and broken. Beaumont has some collapsed buildings and blue FEMA tarps. Vidor looks like an impromptu lumberyard, with huge 150ft pines in front yards with FOR SALE signs attached. Orange was hammered, with lots of collapsed buildings, tons of visible debris and the largest chipping and grinding operation I have ever seen.

These pictures don't do it justice. There were 5 or six heaps of unprocessed stumps and debris, and maybe 6 or 7 heaps of processed. I estimated these mounds are 40ft high by 40 feet wide by 50 yards long. We saw giant highway billboards ripped from the ground lying sideways, their concrete and steel anchors resting in the trees. 100 and 200 foot pines snapped in half were the norm all the way to Sabine. Entering Louisiana, the ecological damage was obvious. Tidal surge had poisoned the soil with salt and chemical runoff. The pines are dying and the deciduous trees have few leaves. Nearing LC we could see there had been flooding and much erosion. The worst was yet to come.

Coming over the high bridge between Westlake (where the big refineries are) into LC we could see the city was a stretch of blue roofs.

Along the lakefront boats and yachts sat ruined on dry land. Coming off the freeway and into the neighborhoods was a high maze of debris and cut trees, stacked on both sides of every street waiting to be hauled away.

Houses with tress still inside, houses with no windows, houses with "X"'s on the door, and lots of vacant properties.

On the commercial avenues, every sign has been blown out, leaving only armatures.

There are only a few grocery stores open and they close early. Enough people have not returned that almost every business has a help wanted sign, a sight unseen before the storm in a city with problem unemployment. The city government is doing all it can with limited resources, and people are helping each other. I sensed a much stronger community than before the storm, and I feel it may change LC for the better in the long run. But things aren't over yet. Mold is ubiquitous, and many people who thought they escaped with little or no damage are finding it's a stealth problem. Health-wise, that Katrina cough is prevalent in LC, too. The hospitals are on skeleton-crew and clinics are for the most part still closed. Elderly people are dying, especially in poor areas, and it's all under the radar.

I want people to know that folks still need help in places like LC. Please, if you have anything left to give, or a desire to volunteer, remember that there are still thousands of Americans living in FEMA trailers eating at FEMA kitchens and waiting for aid to kick in. There are people with no health insurance standing in long, hot lines to see a nurse day after day. There are people who have lost their livelihoods, houses, cars, family photo albums, family members, and anything you can think of in this storm.

So, here's my part in keeping people aware that a city of 70,000 right now has so few people returning that grocery stores can't stay open past 6pm. That whole sections of the city have NO stores open because of water damage. That in vast stretches of neighborhood every house has a blue plastic FEMA roof. That public water in many places is unhealthy and undrinkable. That FEMA is slowly pulling out and leaving people hanging. That the storm affected every socio economic demographic, but that the poor (DUH!) were hit the hardest. That the Casino's are mailing $100 players cards to LC residents in hopes of getting their hands on all that FEMA, Red Cross, and insurance money before it's spent on roofing and debris clearing. That crack dealers are trying to do the same thing as the casinos with free crack. That people are homeless, hungry, and in need. And that there is hope and an effort underway to rebuild that is making the community stronger than it was before.

And now for the gossip. A relative is a law enforcement officer of some rank somewhere between LC and NO. Last weekend he was off duty and told us some stories from when his department helped secure the city of New Orleans after Katrina. Remember those prisoners in their orange jumpsuits on the overpass? They were guarding them and others. He said prisoners kept arriving from all over the State with no paperwork and no way for law enforcement to know if they were DUI's or robbers or rapists or murderers. Apparently, NOPD did a poor job of providing water and food, because prisoners were getting desperate and trying to escape. Every so often one would jump off the bridge, only to be shot in the water from above. He said no effort was made to fire warning shots, and that NOPD, who was doing the shooting and running the show, treated it like sport. At some point his superiors decided they didn't want to be a part of that and pulled out. Everyone is fearful they will be called to testify about these incidents at some point in the next year in NO. As he put it, "If we do, we'll never be able to visit the Easy again and be safe. We'll be marked for life in Louisiana."

Apparently the stories of people shooting at helicopters, etc. were true, but it had nothing to do with hospital evacuations and such. According to him, all of the crack houses, gang headquarters, stolen-goods ring warehouses, and drug/arms safe houses across the city were still manned and defended by their operators. Nobody wanted to leave his turf. So as rescuers conducting door-to-door searches for survivors got close to those places, firefights ensued and the police were out-gunned and out-numbered. At some point, about a week into the recovery, a decision was made to assemble a team of 200 or so officers from city, state, (and federal?) agencies to deal with the situation. He said the State police asked media to leave certain areas so they could conduct security operations, and the teams went to work. Aided by maps showing the locations of the problem targets, law enforcement descended without warning and stormed them systematically. Supposedly they went in with overwhelming firepower, killed the gangsters and criminals where they found them, and closed the doors behind them when they left. No one was arrested. They were just killed. Apparently some of the places were burned afterwards. After those operations, according to the uncle, crime was not a problem citywide. So the cops took the opportunity to clean up the city once and for all. No warrants, no investigations, no arrests. Just action. He says media people know this took place, as do the feds. Will we ever hear anything about all of this? He says, nope. Everyone has washed their hands.

LC didn't have a crime wave after Rita. The police made it clear crime would be dealt with harshly but justly. No shooting looters, but swift arrest and certain prison time. Besides, no one stayed. Estimates say only 200 or 300 people rode out the storm. And it was weeks before anyone was allowed back inside. Now, though, people are flush with cash and everyone is trying to get a piece of it. Just the American way, I suppose.  Just the American way.

UPDATE: Spoke to uncle this morning on another matter and he said local agencies that had been involved with security in NO have been getting phone calls and in person visits from representatives of NOPD who hope to impress the need for solidarity in holding the line on what happened in NO after the storm. The word is there will never be investigations...know what we mean?

Thanks for reading this long diary. Tell your friends the Gulf Coast is standing strong and they should buy Louisiana products when they find them in stores and to support Louisiana businesses online when they need to order spices, Roux, and cane syrup for their cooking. And buy American in general, guys. Wherever and whenever you can.

Peace out!

bastrop